Introducing USB 3.1 to AMD

MSI is laying claim to the world's first AMD motherboard with USB 3.1 support. The board in question is MSI's new 970A SLI Krait Edition, which sports a black and white tuxedo theme that would probably look pretty nifty inside a white theme enclosure. But behind the looks is a USB 3.1 interface that allows for transfer speeds of up to 10Gbps, double that of USB 3.0, and 20 times faster than USB 2.0.

When air cooling isn't enough

Have you ever tried liquid cooling a graphics card? It's not the most difficult thing in the world, though between the water cooling loop and delicately removing the card's stock cooling solution, it can be a little intimidating. And then there's EVGA's new GeForce GTX 980 Hybrid with an all-in-one water cooling already installed. All you need to do is plug the card into your mobo, feed it power, and mount the single 120mm fan radiator.

Power supplies a librarian can love

Building a quiet PC isn't as easy as it sounds. The process of putting the pieces together is mostly the same, unless you're custom installing noise dampening material and rubber grommets, but finding the right components can be challenging. This is especially true of the power supply -- if you don't want to trust your system to a fanless PSU, EVGA may have a serviceable solution.

EVGA today announced its Supernova 650 GS and 550 GS PSUs, both of which are supposedly "completely silent when under low loads."

Broadwell for the desktop is in sight

Intel is reportedly planning to launch a pair of processors based on its 14nm Broadwell architecture sometime in the second quarter of this year. One is the Core i7 5775C and the other is the Core i5 5675C, both of which are unlocked parts, though you'll notice the usual "K" designation for an unlocked Intel chip has been replaced with the letter "C" -- no reason for the change is known at this point.

Two speed demons team up

Are you planning to build a system around Gigabyte's X99-XOC Champion motherboard? If so, Corsair say its new Dominator Platinum DDR4 3400MHz memory kits are performance tuned to run at that frequency and beyond using air cooling when paired with that specific Gigabyte motherboard. It's a bit of a marketing play, as there shouldn't be anything stopping the same kit from working on other X99-chipset boards that require DDR4 RAM, though you may very well achieve higher overclocks when pairing the two together.

A sound board for budget buyers

Is it time to start taking Biostar seriously in power user circles? We'll need to spend some more hands on time with the company's products to answer that question, but in the meantime, Biostar continues to release intriguing motherboards aimed at select groups, such as gamers, overclockers, Bitcoin miners, and even those worried about lightning strikes. Biostar's newest motherboard, the Hi-Fi B85Z5, is for budget buyers who want high-quality onboard audio.

Mini-ITX or bust

Cougar on Monday announced the arrival of its QBX, the "most advanced compact gaming case" around. According to Cougar, there are three reasons the QBX stands out from the crowd. The first is its compact dimensions -- the small form factor (SFF) chassis measures 178 (W) x 260 (H) x 368 (D) millimeters, or 7 (W) x 10.2 (H) x 14.5 (D) inches and can only swallow up mini-ITX motherboards.

A potentially beastly card in the making

Go ahead and apply the standard disclaimer about leaked specs not being verified or official, because that's certainly the case here. Disclaimer aside, we hope that unconfirmed specifications of the AMD's forthcoming Radeon R9 390X graphics card turn out to be accurate, because if they are, it's going to be a potent part that's up to 60 percent faster than AMD's Radeon R9 290X.

AMD R300 Series is around the corner

We know that AMD is getting ready to refresh its graphics card lineup -- a refresh that's long overdue, as far as we're concerned -- though it looks like the first of the upcoming Radeon R9 300 Series won't be a flagship part. At least that won't be the case if, as rumored, XFX launches its Radeon R9 370 Core Edition video card powered by AMD's Trinidad Pro processor next month.